Interesting discoveries about Disney history, vintage Disneyana, Disney artwork, the Walt's People book series, and new books about Disney.

Friday, October 30, 2009

If like me you love Mary Blair's style, you probably already own John Canemaker's excellent biography The Art and Flair of Mary Blair... and find it frustratingly short. I have a feeling that John would not disagree with you.

If it is the case, you need to do everything in your power to get ahold of the catalog of the Japanese exhibition The Colors of Mary Blair. It is 300-page long and quite simply stunning. I had never seen so much Mary Blair art in one single place, including 38 concept paintings for the abandoned project Penelope, 38 from the never completed Baby Ballet, and countless from all the other projects Mary worked on. As if this weren't enough, the book also contains some art by Preston and Lee Blair to round it of, as well as a foreword by Pete Docter and an intro by John Canemaker (in Japanese and English).

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

This just in:

[I thought you and fans of Disney artwork on your blog might be interested to learn about Suspended Animation Gallery, an online art collection produced by notable Disney animation artists, reflecting their own personal inspirations and created in their own choice of medium. The Gallery was founded by Tenny Chonin, former Director of Artist Development at Walt Disney Animation Studios, and she invites you to please check out the website, now live at SuspendedAnimationGallery.com.]

I loved what I saw on that site.

The painting above is from George Scribner, the director of Oliver & Company. Walt Stanchfield, Mike Gabriel, Lisa Keene and quite a few others are also featured. Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Admitedly neither the recently released Tim Burton by Jenny He and Ron Magliozzi, not Le Cinema d'Animation en Espagne (1942 - 1950) [Animation in Spain (1942 - 1950)] are books about Disney History. They are so close to the subject, though, that I thought quite a few of you would want to know that they exist.

The Tim Burton book, by the way, has been released to accompany the MoMA exhibition (thanks to Emmanuel Bourmalo for the heads up).

One of my only frustrations during our trip to San Francisco a few weeks ago was to know that I would miss the screening of Ted Thomas and Kuniko Ukubo's Walt & El Grupo in Madrid. I still have not seen this documentary, which is a real shame.

In the same animation festival (Animadrid) where the screening happened, another documentary was also presented about Walt, which I missed without any second thoughts: Disney a Traves del Espejo (Disney Through the Mirror) by Eduardo Soler, about the infamous (and obviously totally absurd) rumor of Walt's birth in Mojacar, Spain.

This rumor, born thanks to Franco and the Spanish magazine Primer Plano, is unfortunately still alive and, as every stupid and false rumor, is bound to survive us all. They say in French "Calumny, calumny, something will always stick." Too true for our own good.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Walt's People - Update

Just a few words to give you an update on the Walt's People project. The manuscript of Volume 9 was finalized two weeks ago and sent to all the participants for comments. I expect to receive the comments by the end of February, so the publication date should be around May 2010. This will be a huge, absolutely huge volume with lots of new information.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

I am filled with joy when I discover a great book about Disney history or a great Disney art book, so there was joy indeed when I received the new installment of The Archive Series: Animation, which was launched last year with the volume about Story.

The animation drawings that are shown in this book are marvelous and marvelously reproduced. They all showcase emblematic scenes, or emblematic animators (including a few effects animators).

In addition, the person who supervised the layout of this book is talented and displays a clear sense of humor. Check out the drawings of Tinker Bell and Mr. Smee on pages 156 and 157 and you will understand what I mean.

The choice of the drawings is not only spot-on, it is often very clever. I had never noticed some of the parrallels between some attitudes on Ben Ali Gator and some of Chernabog, for example, that are subtly highlighted in the book. I loved seeing on the same page Donald in the 1934 and the 1941 versions of Orphan's Benefit (Dick Lundy / Johnny Cannon). And the beauty of each of Milt Kahl's drawings, and the joy in John Sibley's animation,...

Another great news: the only mistake of the volume about Story has been corrected in the Animation volume: the captions are now where they belong instead of at the end of the book.

Unfortunately it is one of the captions that proves to be the only error in the book through an unfortunate typo which credits Clyde Geronimi as an animator on a Three Caballeros sequence that should have been attributed to Ward Kimball. As we all know, unfortunately, typos survive even in the best edited books so we will be quick to forget it.

In summary: This book is a "must-have" and one of the best art books of the year (very, very, very little text). A great gift for yourself or for a friend this Christmas. Not to be missed.

The Art of the Disney Princess is a case in point. Unlike the two other books I just mentioned, most of the artists in this one are unknown (or to be more precise: I had no idea who they are) and you really wonder what all the drawings have in common, save for the Princess theme. There is also a sense that the sources of inspiration or the creative methods of each of the artists should be explained on a more consistent basis (why are some of the artists quoted and not others?) If that had been the case one would hold a book that would be as much about the creative process as about totally subjective renderings of a common theme, adding strenght and a point to the overall endeavour. But that is not the case, which makes one wonder time and time again: what's the point?

But then the book surprised me as I did find quite a few pages that I liked very much. 13 creations (in a this 172-page book) did strike me as particularly noteworthy:

- Chad Sommers' cover drawing, which reminds me a bit or Archimboldo, although Sommers mentioned that he was inspired by Dali - Pedro Armadillo's version of Aurora as a Gibson girl- The two '60s like movie posters by Eric Tan featuring Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid- The six paintings of the princesses in an Art Nouveau, Mucha-like style: one by Dorota Kotarba-Mendez and five by Enrique Pita & Ed Irizarvy- Belle by Maria Elena Naggi in the style of Francois Boucher's Portrait of Madame de Pompadour (I wonder what that comparison says about Belle!!)- Snow White by Robert Farrell in the style of one of Marc Davis' paintings from the stretching room in The Haunted Mansion (by far, my favorite).

As you see, all the creations I preferred are caricatures. They are the ones which have real meaning to me and I wish a whole book of creative caricatures of famous paintings were done using Disney characters. Italian Disney artists did this in the past and the results were featured in the brillant little book released in Italy in 2001 called The Magic Gallery.

In summary: Although I feel as if I missed the point of this book I did enjoy much of it nonetheless, which did come as a surprise. If you are looking for a non-Disney-history related book that shows Disney to your friends from a different perspective, this might not be a bad one to pick-up.

If you are looking for a GREAT Disney history related book, however, wait until you read the review I will post on Monday.

Actually, now that I think of it, there was something Disney-related linked to my visit to Yosemite. I found this postcard in the small city of Mariposa, right at the entrance of the park. Am I the only one seeing some similarities with part of an attraction originally planned for Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort and now featured in two Disney parks?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

I have just received three new books from Disney Editions that I will review within the next few days. One surprised me and one is almost perfect save for a very disturbing "typo". Let's start however, with a book that did not surprise me but that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Peter Pan, illustrated by Mary Blair, follows the pattern of the Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland books from the same series. If you have those already you can easily imagine what the Peter Pan book is: a great series of 29 concept paitings by Mary Blair illustrating a short text re-telling the famous story. I really enjoy this short series, which is oddly similar to the "Disney Archives" book series from the early '90s, which featured "The Emperor's Nightingale" and "Tin Soldier".

The only unfortunate news is that Peter Pan is confirmed as being the last installment in the series. A real shame as I would really have loved to see a lot more of those short books illustrated by various legends of the Story Department. Oh well, I always want more anyway. So for now let's just enjoy this beautiful little book.

This just in from Christian Renaut, author of two great books about Disney history, including the one pictured above:

[Dear Disney historians, Disney artists or more largely Disney employees or former Disney artists, gallery owners or relatives of deceased Disney artists, artists working in the animation business, this message is for you!

After having published two French books on Disny animation (“From Snow-White to Hercules” prefaced by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston and “The Disney heroines” prefaced by Glen Keane), I am starting in earnest work on my third project. Its title will probably be “The 20 greatest moments of Disney feature animation”.

That’s where you might get involved. Instead of imposing my standpoint, I intend to do a kind of poll or survey if you are willing to help. The book will be an analysis of 20 great “moments”. It is on purpose that I didn’t use the word “sequence” or “scene” as I want it to be very free, although we may expect the moment to last a certain length of time.So, I’m asking you to select your 20 favorites, justifying, explaining and also giving details or anecdotes about these moments of Disney animation. For instance if you were a young artist working with the old timers, I’m sure you have a lot to tell.

The criteria are all yours. You may judge it from a layout standpoint, or because of a wonderful storyboarding, or a great song, or outstanding animation, or because it is very funny or moving, or because of the coloring/styling, or the backgrounds, or because you are stunned by the special effects, etc... But we could also think that an excellent combination of most of these criteria might lead to THE choice.

Yes, I know how silly it may sound to have to just select 20 moments when some features like... (oups, stop, no influencing anyone!) already contain at least 20 great moments. That’s why I have decided to split it all into two legitimate parts as you will see: 20 ‘greats’ when Walt Disney was alive, and later on, I will do another investigation for the other part, i-e, the features since his death. For now, I’m asking you to focus on this list:

VOLUME 1Snow-White and the Seven DwarfsPinocchioFantasiaThe Reluctant DragonDumboBambiSaludos AmigosThe Three CaballerosMake Mine MusicSong of the SouthFun and Fancy FreeMelody TimeThe Adventures of Ichabod and Mr ToadCinderellaAlice in WonderlandPeter PanLady and the TrampSleeping BeautyThe 101 DalmatiansThe Sword in the StoneMary PoppinsThe Jungle Book

I will try to make a book with new information, as usual, based on interviews, but also with hardly ever or never-before seen artwork. It will surely be long in the making, but never mind! Thanks in advance for your participation, please think it over and send your mails to christian.renaut@wanadoo.fr]

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Disney History in San Francisco and around

You have already read the reviews, the reports on various Disney-related blogs and seen the images on Flickr and on YouTube [If not click on this link sent me by Gunnar for YouTube content] so this story about the inauguration of the Walt Disney Family Museum will not attempt to be objective in any way, shape or form. This is the very biased report of an enthusiast who had been waiting for many years for this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Let's start by saying that I was not disappointed (on the contrary!). The Museum is without a doubt a tremendous success. It manages to humanize Walt by showing him as a caring father, a tremendously enthusiastic man even at home, and a loving husband, without shying away from the most problematic aspects of his life (the section about the strike is a case in point). Of course, Walt had been "humanized" before today in the best biographies written about him, in the movie The Man Behind the Myth, etc, but the Museum goes way further along this path, showing many beautiful home movies, simple personal artifacts, rare photos,... There was a lot that I had never seen before (and I mean a whole lot), but I consider those home movies as the key richness of the Museum. Far from the only richness, though.

The Museum is so rich, in fact, that it would be ludicrous to try and list even half of the great elements it contains. Especially since I only spent 2 hours there during the inauguration event, then another hour afterwards. This means that I did not have time to explore any of the interactive experiences that the Museum offers and that allow to dig deeper and deeper and deeper into Disney history.

But let's try and list the elements that struck me as most striking:

In the reception area, among the awards, the huge award from Italy featuring Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs fascinated me, along with Mickey on the Tortoise from Brazil which I had seen in various photos and whose story will soon be revealed by Celbi Pegoraro in his upcoming book about Disney and Brazil.

In the first few galleries, as I mentionned, I loved the home movies, but also Walt's early drawings (way more than I had ever seen before), all the photographs of his childhood and most of all the fact that his voice is telling the story (this is the case everywhere in the Museum but in this first room is where I realized how powerful this device can be). I also tremendously enjoyed the vignettes telling Walt's early days using paper cut-outs (on High Def TV screens - I will come back to this later).

On the second floor, some of the highlights include the Schultheis notebook (and the way it is presented - see below in this text), the way the Disney artists from Hyperion are presented, the fanciful recreation of the Moviola (I loved that one. While it might not be a real Moviola, it gave me a sense of what one would feel and see while using one. The first time I truly understood what the artists must have felt with Walt watching over their shoulder.)

I knew the Multiplane camera would be spectacular. It is.

Gallery 9 (the '50s and '60s) is a true fireworks with more to see everywhere than one could imagine and those beautiful movies of Walt's last trip to Canada, his Mineral King press conference,...

Suffice it to say that my wife cried in Gallery 10 when she realized that Walt had "just" died to give you an idea of how powerful the whole Museum experience is.

I was only disappointed by one aspect of the Museum: the store. Most of the products featured do not have much connection with Walt himself, the book selection is a bit underwhelming (although the books featured are truly excellent ones) and there was a feeling overall in that specific part of the Museum that nothing really special was taking place there if compared to the rest of the place. But I also have a feeling that this will soon be corrected as there was little time for the Museum team to concentrate on that specific section. The catalog of the Museum had not yet been released either (issues with the printing apparently) which of course did not help from my point of view (again, an issue the Museum staff was aware of and will be sorted soon).

Overall there are four key elements that dominate my sense of enthusiasm for the Museum:

1. The building itself is truly beautiful and the way it has been restored makes it even more stunning. This is a building which is really of the tremendous quality level you would expect for a museum about Walt.

2. A very large percentage of the documents presented are seen in this Museum for the first time ever, are of great historical value and have been selected with extreme care (by Diane, JB Kaufman, Paula Sigman Lowery, Jeff Kurtti, David Lesjak, and Bruce Gordon to name a few).

3. If you already loved Walt as a human being, radiating charm and enthusiasm, you will love him even more. If you did not know him, I have a feeling that the Museum will make you feel how special (if not perfect) a human being he was and how talented the artists who surrounded him also were.

4. The use that is made of new technologies to preserve and showcase old documents is truly outstanding: the home movies have been digitized, cleaned up and shown on HD monitors; the Schultheis notebook is presented using a huge touch-screen reminicent of the movie Minority Report or the large interactive board that was seen on CNN during the latest US presidential election,... The inauguration that I attended on Friday 25th was followed by a cocktail party that was attended by several of the best Disney historians including JB Kaufman (working full time for the Walt Disney Family Foundation), David Lesjak (who heavily contributed to the WWII section of the Museum), Charles Solomon, and Jeff Kurtti, and prominent artists like Andreas Deja, Tom Sito and Pete Docter who have a strong passion for Disney history.

During that event Andreas mentioned that he was working on a blog. I will of course tell you all about it when it is launched.

The Walt Disney Family organized at least 5 or 6 diffent launch events before the official opening on October 1st. Some for the press, some for the Media industry (the one I attended), some for top VIPs (that Bob Iger, John Lasseter, Leonard Maltin, Tony Baxter, and others attended).

The day that followed the inauguration event quite a few Disney historians decided to gather for a lunch at the Fog City Diner. The group included people like JB Kaufman, Don Peri, Andreas Deja, Tom Sito, Alan Coats (Claude and Evie Coats' son), Joe Campana, Alexander Rannie, Stacia Martin, Hans Perk,...

Which leads me to share two dreams with you:

- I hope that the Walt Disney Family Museum will at some point become the visible part of a project focused on preserving Disney history on a wider scale.

- I also hope that the kind of lunch that happened on Satuday October 26 will be the first in a series of yearly events that will gather key Disney historians to work together on specific projects. A Disney seminar? Maybe.

We will see if 2010 brings this to us. We will wish for this at Xmas time (or in my case at Hannukah). Let's just say that I am actively promoting this concept along with a few other friends.

We spent the rest of the week at Yosemite, which although tremendously beautiful, is irrelevant in this report.

When we came back from Yosemite we had the chance to spend the night at the home of John Lounsbery's daughter, which also gave us the opportunity to meet again with Mel Shaw (and with Don Peri and his wife - who shot most of the photos that illustrate this report). Once again I was impressed by Mel's versatility. I fell in love with his sketches from South-East Asia and with his sculptures (I was already in love with his Disney concept art paintings, of course). I truly hope that we will soon be able to help him release his long-awaited autobiography.

During that part of the trip I learned that John Lounbery's grandson, Paul, is working on a website that will feature Mel's artwork. Again, I will let you know as soon as it is up and running.

2009 was a great year for Disney history. I have a feeling that 2010 will be even better.

Whatever you do, go to San Francisco as soon as possible. It is definitely worth it and I truly believe that we should support the Museum if we want our wishes for 2010 to become a reality.

My congratulations and thanks to all of you reading this blog who contributed to such a tremendous achievement. Let's work together to now go even further.

WHO: Mickey Mouse will visit Union Station in Kansas City, Walt Disney’s hometown, to celebrate the unveiling of a traveling art exhibit that pays homage to Walt Disney’s lifelong love of trains and introduces the latest train conducted by Mickey himself, Mickey’s Magic Choo Choo toy train, releasing in time for the holidays. Local preschoolers along with representatives from the Kansas City Mayor’s office and hundreds of fans will see Mickey before he departs from Union Station bound for Los Angeles for a viewing party for the premier of the Disney Channel primetime special, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Choo Choo Express airing Sunday October 25th. Families and their kids can track Mickey’s travels online at www.YouTube.com/Disneyliving.

WHAT: The exhibit captures the history of Walt’s and Mickey’s love of trains with a nod to life on the railroad in the early 20th century. Introducing visitors to rare animation art, historic photography and some of Walt’s personal train-related artifacts, the gallery tells the story of a simpler time when Mickey and friends traveled by rail and Walt himself was building one-of-a-kind miniature railroads in his backyard for friends and family. Including photographs of Walt riding the “Lilly Belle” or Mickey rushing to catch a train in an early animation sketch from Mr. Mouse Takes A Trip, this unique art collection comprised of nearly two dozen pieces will be on display at Union Station for a limited time; select images will then move to Griffith Park in Los Angeles.]

Thursday, October 08, 2009

According to a post on Ultimatedisney.com it appears that the two Snow White books mentioned in the previous post are the same in terms of content and page count but slightly different in terms of layout and really different in terms of size and cover.

I am still totally swamped, so the blog will probably be silent until Monday, by which time it should be back to normal.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Of course you all know that yesterday marked the release of the Snow White Blu-Ray. I seldom mention DVDs and Blu-Rays on this blog, which might be a mistake. I have two good reasons to mention this release though:

1. I had the chance to be involved in the creation of the Hyperion Tour bonus feature, helping gather the audio clips that are featured in that section. Frankly I would not have mentioned this fact if I had not done a stupid mistake in the process which deserves to be underlined. One of the Disney historians who provided some great clips for the Hyperion Tour was Don Peri. Unfortunately through an absurd oversight on my part, Don's name does not appear in the credits.

So if you enjoy the clips from the interviews with Marcellite Garner, Wilfred Jackson, Ken O’Connor, Roy Williams and Eric Larson, remember that those are coming from interviews that Don conducted many years ago.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

I will of course tell you later this week about the Walt Disney Family Museum inauguration. This will have to wait until Thursday or Friday, though, as I am catching up with a tremendous amount of work that accumulated while I was away and am also about to enter a series of all-day meetings that will keep me extremely busy until Wednesday evening (no updates of the blog until Thursday therefore). I will however scan tomorrow morning (Monday) the cover of the first issue of the Walt Disney Family Museum Members Newsletter. While Jeff Kurtti, JB Kaufman, and John Canemaker penned excellent short articles for the newsletter, the real highlight of this issue is Diane's rememberance of Christmases spent with her father. A one page article but a pure delight for Disney entusiasts and Disney historians.